Follow TMS

Articles by Johan Galtung

October 8-12, 1974 a symposium on “Patterns of Resource Use, Environment and Development Strategies” was convened in Cocoyoc, Mexico by the directors of UN Environment Programme and the UN Conference on Trade and Development. The Rapporteurs were Barbara Ward and Johan Galtung. The Cocoyoc Declaration is reproduced below, with certain sadness: it is as valid today, more than 40 years later. The two directors received a three-feet-long cable, from the US State Department, rejecting the declaration entirely. Signed by Henry Kissinger.

What more is needed, beyond “dialogue of civilizations”? Like for man-woman: creating something new. A real dialogue goes beyond getting to know each other to mutual learning, beyond mutual learning to mutual visions, and beyond that to mutual practice.

What is needed is a system where negative, violent relations are changing to neutral or no relations, where neutral or no relations are changing to positive, peaceful relations, and where positive, peaceful relations become even more peaceful and positive. The Octagon World might be one such system. But for this to work, the state system is not sufficient.

The task of journalists is to mirror reality, empirical reality, not some potential reality desired by some and-or predicted by some. It is not to mediate to change empirical reality in favor a new social reality. The task of journalists mirroring reality would include information about communities handling successfully natural and-or social disasters and how; not only all those that did not.

My Syria is profoundly Muslim, run by the imams. And my Syria is profoundly Ottoman; 400 years with tolerance for the other religions of the kitab, and for non-Arabic minorities. Wanting to learn “what Syria is about today” I want them to tell me directly; not indirectly, in writing or orally, via “experts”. So, going to Syria, what touched my senses?

Being 88 and suffering from nothing, what is my health formula? Food low on carbs: low on bread, easy; on sugar-sweets, not easy. Health from food? Yes, but with taste, and with beauty. Health from exercise? Yes, but also with taste, and with beauty. TRANSCEND wishes our 70,000+ contacts around the world and everybody else a 2019 with Health. Have much fun–basic to health.

The TRANSCEND Method uses dialogues with all parties to identify their goals, testing their legitimacy, and for visions of a new social reality meeting legitimate goals. Diagnoses focus on conflict and trauma, prognoses without or with intervention, therapy on visions of solution and conciliation; proposed, propagated and realized.

A world without US killing would be a major contribution to negative peace, to Glenn Paige’s “non-killing world”. His own country with or without death penalty stopping killing all over. It is coming. What about US and positive peace? Could less US killing also contribute to that? It is also coming, as a change in US mentality. There are many signs in that direction recently, as an expression of Washington now seeing the limits to “politics by military means”.

Johan Galtung, a professor of peace studies, was awarded among others the 1987 High Livelihood Award, known as the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize. Galtung has mediated in over 150 conflicts in more than 150 countries, and written more than 170 books on peace and related issues, 96 as the only author. More than 40 have been translated to other languages. He has published more than 1500 articles and book chapters and over 500 Editorials for TRANSCEND Media Service.

The pandemic of violence continues. In addition, there seems to be something new and very serious coming up: a general devaluation of human life–making killing, even genocide, easier, more like disposal of garbage. Of the Right to Life, Art 3 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, one hears nothing, let alone of the sacredness of human life as a divine gift.

“Mob protests in Germany show vigor of far right”, in Chemnitz. Neo-nazis. Nazism was about race–Bolshevism about class. Churchill about both–so it is probably skin color, not religion. As expected. There are difficult, bad times ahead.

The state of the world is right now going from bad to worse, with more violence or threats thereof; an epidemic, even pandemic, of violence. And more inequality within and between countries and money buying votes in fake elections and politicians in fake democracies turning plutocracies run by money. And nature insulted; less diversity and less symbiosis with CFCs in the ozone layer.

There are many summit meetings, usually with Trump. “Good chemistry” is not sufficient, nor is it necessary. Peace may come about in spite of, not because of, the summits. Summiteers might come further focusing on “how can we be good to each other” than on “how can we stop being bad”. Positive approach.

The world may be losing a peace opportunity in the USA-North Korea conflict. With NK nuclear-tipped missiles capable of reaching mainland USA something close to “balance of power” had been obtained, by many seen as the key to peace via “mutual and balanced” disarmament even to “general and complete disarmament”.

The violence pandemic continues, unabated, particularly in the USA. There is interest in peace but not much in doing anything about it. And even less in what this column recommends with 60 years experience: identify and solve underlying conflicts, concile underlying traumas. Not easy. But feasible, if the will is there. A 2-point agenda.

They are up against emirs and pashas not gladly ceding privileges to a carpet dotted with imams. IS–not ISIS, ISL, DAESH–the Islamic State, backing politically-militarily the Islamic Caliphate (IC), understands this, and relates directly to imams. The West got lost in the image of Syria as a Western colony, which it also was from 1916 (Sykes-Picot).

1974 – The goal of this very simple exploration has been not to lose contact with the socially relevant. One socially relevant factor is what might be called structural imagination, where a look at a textbook of organic chemistry and a textbook of, say, sociology, gives a clear indication of where this factor is more developed. Social scientists talk about human and social variety, the specialists in organic chemistry not only talk about it, but present it and produce it. In this there is much to learn, but there is also much to learn from the way chemistry has managed to integrate empirical and constructive approaches.

As usual, many truths emerge, very much worth knowing. A world trying to substitute economic for military power should try to use better cultural power, also as spiritual power: “Pope Francis offers a different model of power”, with very very concrete proposals. May he reach the corridors of power; they are fortunate enough to co-exist in time with this giant.

Easter 2018 – We may soon be witnessing those powerful politicians fizzling out. Trump is seen as “unleveled”, “incompetent”; Netanyahu is framed as “corrupt”; and Rajoy for pillaging the state to support his party. However, true or not, the real reasons are their failed policies.

America itself may look at the map and discover that they are located in North America, with two neighbors, big in population and in land, and conclude that MEX-US-CAN, Mexuscan, makes a lot of sense. At least worth contemplating. Making USA not America First as somebody proclaims while producing America Last. But America Normal.

This essay about time is actually about human dignity. We are not drifting along something called time willy-nilly, like falling down pulled by something called gravity. Time is change; being masters of much change relevant to us we can create new contexts and call that moving forward in time, and recreate old contexts and call that moving backward in time.

The world is getting worse. Violence used to cluster around the global power of USA and the regional power of Israel. Now two more:
“The unstoppable growing power of China.”
“Erdögan’s Neo-Ottomanism at a Dangerous Turning Point.” And “Military buildup on the reefs” in South China Sea.

I am sitting somewhere in Afghanistan. Across the table are three Taliban; Pashtuns like most Taliban. My opening question is standard: “What does the Afghanistan look like where you would like to live?” with some equally standard follow-up questions: “What is the worst that happened to you?”, and “Was there a good period in the past?”

The right column is sadly familiar; add more recent cases. The left column also carries an element of sadness but nothing really radical; more like common sense that could easily be translated into political practice. A theory is something tested along its edges (Quine); what you deduce from the theory–and to me the key “edge”–is its action-consequences.

I feel sad. I feel betrayed. I am in the West, the West is in me. Unrealistic are the present US-EU policies. Whoever moves too far away from reality will be punished: USA by being isolated, EU by warfare turning potential friends into enemies. If they want to go down, continue. Alternative: join the world. So, permit me two wishes, two dreams.

One thing is wealth, another is life expectancy: Japan and Spain are Nos. 1 and 2, Norway No. 14, USA No. 25. No doubt the Japanese diet based on le cru, not le cuit, and the Spanish Mediterranean diet, also based on the sea, the plains and the mountains, play major roles… A small but important signal from La Nucia in Spain: no more permits to build new houses for some time. La Nucia wants to stop growing. 30,000 inhabitants in 2030 is the limit; with no limitation on restoration, beauty, art, well-being.

There seems to be a stalemate, with 8 million or so in and around Seoul being as hostages to North Korean artillery should there be a US attack. North Korea will not launch a first strike, but they want to show USA-Japan-the World that they are equal to USA in offensive capability with an invulnerability of force and value–people–unmatched in human history. Mantra: “1952” NEVER AGAIN!

Two basic institutions in Western history and individual lives: Christianity offering Salvation to those following Laws, Commandments, and Science offering Truth to those who believe in scientific laws. After Enlightenment ushered in a godless world, one is waning and the other vexing, seen as antithetical to each other.

The TRANSCEND Method is based on the central thesis that to prevent violence and develop the creative potential of a conflict, there has to be transformation. At the root of the method is the understanding of conflict as incompatible goals, meaning as a problem to be solved; not as incompatible parties (persons, countries etc.), meaning as one or more parties to be controlled (usually not oneself).

Trump is trumping himself by making America Last, not in the sense of long-lasting, but in the sense of going down. There is something to learn for those receptive to learning, and Islam puts it forcefully: togetherness, and sharing. We would add: as equally as possible. But Trump politics is the opposite of that, and the price is increasing. And so is today also much of Muslim politics, to their detriment.

A timeless piece worth of reflection as the [im]morality and [il]legality of nuclear weaponry made it to the UNGA resulting in the approval of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons-ICAN.

What a year, this 2017! 500 years ago Luther’s theses; 150 years ago Marx’ Das Kapital, 100 years ago Lenin’s Bolshevik Revolution; shaking Rome’s control of Europe, and Europe’s control of the world. Usually the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prizes are compliant with the foreign policy of Norway; this time not. The next step is to solve conflicts between nuclear powers, like USA vs N. Korea, West vs Russia.

Freedom of expression can be severely curtailed by taboo zones in any country, outruling, sometimes also outlawing the unspeakable… To see Hitler, not his ideas, as evil, is itself an evil idea. Kill Hitler or he kills himself and the ideas are still alive, blowing in the air so to speak, in search of new carriers. The ideas have to be confronted and overcome; only killing individual carriers is naive.

We made it! Five hundred Mondays [from 3 Mar 2008] has Antonio from Brazil-Portugal posted an editorial by me from Norway and the world–sometimes with a coauthor. With the good support of the other members of our editorial committee, Malvin Gattinger from Germany, Naakow Grant-Hayford from Ghana and Erika Degortes from Italy. THANKS!

Jurisprudence and the legal model; why not, and the alternatives? Answer: A deeply rooted model seeing social reality as actors, individual or collective, responsible for their acts, answerable to the law. An indispensable perspective to be enriched with a systemic perspective: action is not only conditioned by actor intention and capability, but also by good and bad structures; hence changing bad structures, not only punishing illegal actors, or restoring them.

There are no chosen individuals, with promised status. We are all chosen as humans by the precious gift of life, with guaranteed survival, wellness, freedom of options, identity. In a nature with guaranteed diversity and symbiosis; not vicious human attacks on both.

These are the goals of the United Nations; the Hardanger Academy made them three foci. The problem arose: what do they have in common? Are they three aspects of the same thing? If so, what is that “thing”? Four ways of trying to answer have been identified and explored. Four because of four ways of approaching social reality.

There seems to be a new European system for calculating the GNP. Not only is armament included, but also the money that goes into research and development for war. Also included are prostitution and drugs, as “services.” Anything offered and demanded in return for money is in. How does that make us feel about economic growth? To be among the “per capita” by which this monster coming out of sickening economistic minds is divided?

The world wants messages of peace from these great, old faiths [Judaism, Christianity, Islam], not everlasting belligerence. That could emanate from Jerusalem, by highlighting the traditions of togetherness and tolerance rather than the opposite: the Abrahamic faiths betraying the human hope of peace. The world is waiting. Time for this to happen is now.

Time to open the positive door to Russia with exchange for mutual and equal benefit. Trade in processed goods, and in services, cooperation in killing speculation and drug-poisoning. Above all, mutual respect not only benefit. Admiration, sympathy. Love. RUSSIA: ja tjebja ljubljo. I love you.

The US Trump ship is sinking and does not serve Norway’s interests. Time for the Norwegian rat to jump ship boarding increasingly accepted EU to build its own ship: defensive defense, neutral between West and Rest; with positions, not only jobs for less inequality; seeing the good in all, for projects linking good with good.

Kinsey played a major role. Very solid, very empirical, vast, comprehensive, fought by some churches and no doubt by some patriarchs. But science prevailed… Unfortunately sex is generally confused with love both in literature and in reality. Sex is ephemeral pleasure of the genitalia—any genitalia. Love is emotion, energy, synergy between two human beings. Love and sex complement but do not replace each other, being of utterly different natures.

The housing market used to be a way for people to organize themselves and share costs and risks. Now in bigger cities it seems to be mainly about selling people to housing corporations. The online markets used to be extensions of “real” ones, selling goods and services. Now the central market is ‘attention,’ essentially selling people to advertisement companies.

There are many of them–of different kinds–in world geography. We can try to identify the characteristics of their peacefulness. Or we can start by identifying belligerent societies and then see peaceful societies as their negations. Let us try this one first.

“Why War?” was the title of an interchange of letters between Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein in 1932, 85 years ago. What can we still learn from these giants, and what might they have learned in the meantime? Let us look at their approaches, as fellow human beings searching for answers to a question for humankind at all times: the curse of war.

The primary purpose of rural cooperatives is to feed themselves by sharing risks, and share gains on top of that. Members are both farmers and farm workers with risk-absorbing capacity and sharing. Poor and unemployed from towns and cities may join, at least getting food in exchange for work.

2050 is only 33 years ahead; 33 years back is Orwell’s 1984. Much happened. The Berlin Wall collapsed in 1989; the Soviet Empire, Soviet Union and Communism followed. The US Empire declined, former clients refused to fight US wars, but not EU wars; eroding NATO. The Cold war, threatening humanity with a nuclear arms race that in a hot war could obliterate the planet, melted away with a whimper.

It is amazing. The United Nations have decades, years, weeks and days, dedicated to more values, goals and concerns than most of us are aware of. Compare it to nation-states usually with only one day, their day, their national day, celebrating nobody but themselves… We are one humanity in one world with many faultlines; let the UN conscience be ours.

The basic demands of Pyongyang can easily be met: a peace treaty, normalization of diplomatic relations to Seoul and USA, a nuclear-free, UN-inspected Korean peninsula. An afternoon job for peace, USA?

Spain is in a process that will take some time, from “España: Una, Grande, Libre” to “España: Una Comunidad de naciones”—“Spain: One, Great, Free” to “Spain: A community of nations.” Positive peace builds on negative peace building on conciliation of traumas and solution of conflicts. There is much work to be done, but Spain as a true community of nations will inspire the whole world.

Overfed with the developed-developing dichotomy, many believe that the former have no problems whereas the latter have only problems. Much better is a Yin-Yang perspective: something is missing in all; something has been accomplished by all. The limitation is in our limited political imagination. Grow so that world visions will open up in our minds, shared with others in new speeches, enacted in new acts. We can if we will. And we will if we imagine.

This opens for behaviorism: avoid trauma, seek glory. But the idea is deeper. Deep-repeated trauma leads to stress disorder, not only stress. Deep-repeated glory may lead to exuberance disorder: let us have more wars to enjoy more victories! Not only for defense!

This theoretical essay is concerned with the conditions of aggression. We shall define aggression somewhat vaguely as ‘drives towards change, even against the will of others’. The extreme forms of this phenomenon are crimes, including homicide, between individuals; revolutions, including elimination, between groups; and wars, including genocide, between nations. These forms make aggression negative and problematic, a cause of concern and prevention. But one can also turn the coin and look at the other face: aggression as the driving force in history, as the motivational energy that moves mountains.

World Forum on Urban Violence, Madrid, 19-21 April 2017 – To reduce direct violence in cities we have to move from urban violence culture to an urban peace culture and from urban structural violence to a structure of peace. Street names should not glorify wars and violent heroes but peace and their heroines, often women. Move warrior on horseback monuments close to the cemetery for symbolic burial.

From Trump’s USA was not resurrection, but death. 59 Tomahawk missiles for Syria, the “mother of all bombs” for Afghanistan; Muslim states. Both attacks were based on lies: the old lie that 9/11 had its origin in Afghanistan, the new lie that Assad deliberately had used sarin . The counter-narrative–that USA had provided the gas and used the accident as pretext for an attack–may stand. Let us see if USA-NATO accept an investigation; with a clean conscience, they would.

Galileo’s finger points to two pillars for science: scientific knowledge must be based on empirical facts observed or by experiments; and the language to express scientific knowledge is mathematics. First objection: only the past can produce empirical facts; that limits what might or ought to be to what already have been facts. But humans are capable of transcending the past, and create new facts.

Starting with EU at 60, making small states (Luxembourg!) big by being members of something bigger, but making bigger, even imperial, states smaller by being “members”… UK outside and France inside are now paying the heavy immigration price for devastation wrought by their empires; with no EU solidarity… Trump is seen as psychotic with crazy policies: military up $54 billion at the expense of the poor, health, environment, climate, arts, culture. The US killings all over were not seen as crazy, but Trump kills at the cost of basics. He may not last 100 days, impeached or-?